1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a shock absorber, comprising a damping element and an air spring, the damping element having a container tube, a fixing part and a piston rod, and the air spring comprising a spring bellows acting as a rolling bellows, an outer tube connected to a mass to be held with little oscillation and a rolling tube bearing a rolling profile. The spring bellows bounds a gas chamber provided with a gas filling under pressure, while the rolling tube seals off the gas chamber with respect to the container tube and is fixed to the latter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shock absorbers of the aforementioned type are used, for example, on a suspension of a chassis of a utility vehicle, in order largely to keep away the oscillations introduced into the chassis via the wheel suspensions by the road. In this case, the outer tube of the air spring and a piston rod of the damping element are connected to the vehicle superstructure and the chassis. The action of the air spring depends on the size of and the pressure prevailing in the gas chamber, the distance of the outer tube from the rolling tube, and the shape of the rolling profile on the rolling tube. While the problem of sealing off the gas chamber with respect to the atmosphere is solved by using an O-ring between the rolling tube of the air spring and the container tube of the damping element, a design has hitherto been chosen which provides for a supporting ring, which can be produced only with a great deal of expenditure on production and has to be connected to the container tube. One contour of the rolling tube can then be supported on the supporting ring. However, the higher the numbers are, the greater the demand for rationalization of the aforementioned supporting point for the rolling tube on the container tube.
In order to support the rolling tube on the container tube, the present invention introduces a compression stop cap, whose basic body is tubular in order to support the rolling tube with respect to the container tube. The rolling tube is therefore supported by the compression stop cap. When the shock absorber is installed, the result is therefore a stable positional state for the rolling tube with respect to the container tube of the damping element.
The present invention has therefore taken as its object the provision of a shock absorber, comprising a damping element and an air spring, in which a rolling tube, as a constituent part of the air spring, can be supported with respect to a container tube of the damping element in a cost-effective way and with little expenditure on assembly.
An exemplary embodiment of supporting a rolling tube of an air spring with respect to a container tube of a damping element will be explained by using a number of drawings.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.